


The Color in Your Eyes

by stealthmodeactivate



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: F/F, M/M, Mavin, black and white soulmate, i worked real hard on this and the concept is my fav, just gonna say, soulmate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-31
Updated: 2014-10-14
Packaged: 2018-02-15 11:57:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2228187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stealthmodeactivate/pseuds/stealthmodeactivate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU where your vision is entirely black and white until you meet your soulmate and your whole world turns to color.<br/>(beerbra-drunkelman.tumblr.com/post/89209731527)</p><p>Gavin's world lights up, but Michael's doesn't. Gav doesn't tell Michael that his world lit up because he didn't see the color in Michael's eyes like how his parents had told him the way it happens. It's been known to happen- for your fate to change- so they still have a chance to see life in all of its colorful splendor.</p><p>Gavin knew as soon as those gorgeous, chocolate brown eyes opened that he was gone, and his world was about Michael and only Michael until they were dead and rotting in their graves, and maybe even after that. It sounded cliche, it sounded cheesy and dumb, but that was just how it was supposed to be, Michael and Gavin for as long as the sun burned in the sky and the stars shone in the endless galaxy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> UPDATE: I am so sorry I'm taking so long to post the next chapter, but I promise it will wrap this one up. I'm incapable of making long stories, but I promise you, the next chapter is long. I'll post it tonight, my lovelies!~

Gavin hated the bleakness of the world around him. He hated seeing everything in purely shades of black, white, and grey. He hadn't found his soulmate yet, like his parents did 27 years ago.

Their worlds were in color. They'd described it to him, using incredible words such as "turquoise, magenta, and lavender". He'd never seen the sunset, full of "bright yellow, vibrant orange, vivid red, and deep purple" and he hadn't known the color of his baby brother's eyes when he got to hold him in his arms. (as babies had color in their eyes for the first day of their birth) Mother called it "hazel". Hazel sounded nice. A word that rolled off the tongue. But it left the bitter residue of blandness. It was only a simple reminder that Gavin didn't know what it looked like.

His brother, George (or so they called him), had found his soulmate already, at only 23. He often made snide remarks about his ability to see in color to Gavin, but he didn't know quite how deep it really cut.

Gavin wasn't really sure about the whole "soulmate" thing yet. He wasn't one to stay nailed down with one person. The thing he _was_ sure about was finally seeing colors. Violet sounded the nicest to Gavin. There was no way to describe colors to someone who couldn't see them, but the way violet made his mother smile when she saw it made him sure it must be the most wonderful color in the world.

His father was coming home from an afternoon of work the day it happened. Mother was in the kitchen, making bowls of potato soup and bacon for the family when the ceramic dishes she held in her hands crashed into the sink, shattering with sickening cracks.

Gavin ran in, only a boy of 8, to see what was wrong. His mother was just sitting motionless on the kitchen floor in front of the sink. He cautiously tiptoed around the table and up to her with George clinging to his back, carefully peeking around it.

"Mother?" He asked bravely, kneeling next to her and taking one of her hands in his.

She looked at him blankly. "Your father's dead, Gavin." She wasn't crying. Her face was void of all emotion, the utmost expression of grief.

Gavin grabbed her shoulders and looked at her closer.

"How do you know?" Unlike her, his breathing was becoming ragged. George was standing beside them, not knowing what to do. He wasn't entirely sure what she meant by "dead", but he'd heard about it before when his goldfish had gone away.

"I can't see color anymore, Gavvy." She replied, staring at nothing. Her eyes weren't his mother's eyes. There was nothing there. No glimmer of the twinkling bright irises shining back at him like usual. He knew, although those without color vision couldn't see, that her "green-blue" eyes had reverted to a dead grey once more.

He stared at her, shock lapping over his body. It overtook him and he crumbled, falling into her lap, his body heaving with sobs and moans. She didn't do anything to console her son, only staring blankly on.

George was too young to grasp the concept of death. He understood solely that it was when you left and never came back, and was a terrible thing. So, he sat innocently next to Gavin and held his hand and rubbed soft circles on his back as his brother cried.

And so they stayed this way until a uniformed policeman, who walked through the door left ajar by George, came to inform them of their father's death. This had no effect on the grieving family until the man requested they follow him, and his mother told Gav and George in a monotone voice to do as he asked.

His father was killed by a careless drunk driver who caused him to crash into a tree, but who was lucky enough to speed away unhurt. The Free family visited the funeral a few days later, where a long black cloth was placed over the casket in representation of the death of a soulmate. It was that day that Gavin made the decision to never drive. He didn't ever want to leave his family like his father did. His goal in life was to find his soulmate and see the world in all its colored glory and make the best of it all.

 

\---

(18 years later)

 

"Shut the fuck up, Lindsay." Michael snarled, batting Lindsay's face away from his. She gave him an exaggerated frown as he got up from his seat on the couch to cross his arms menacingly above her.

"Aw, Michael, are you jealous?" She teased, pouting her lip at him. She'd recently found her soulmate, a gorgeous lady named Barbara, while in Canada on vacation.

"I swear to fucking god." He growled, stalking away from her to pace in his apartment's kitchen.

"I never noticed before- I guess couldn't have," she paused to giggle cruelly. "Your walls are fucking bland. And the couch doesn't match the carpet at all." She stood back, critiquing it all.

"Lindsay, I suggest you shut your mouth before I snap your neck." The angry man sneered at her. She simply laughed, knowing he was all bark and only the occasional bite.

Michael wanted to see color more than anything. He couldn't stand only white and all it's shitty shades for the rest of his fucking life. At 27, it was unbearable without it. The video games he played were bland as shit and he couldn't watch any videos, TV, or movies without getting bored from lack of vibrancy.

"But seriously, Michael," Lindsay said, becoming serious and walking toward him. "I'm sure you'll find your soulmate, too." He just huffed. "Remember when we were young and thought as soon as we looked each other in the eyes, our worlds would turn to color because we were so smitten?" She smiled at the memory. "But then we got closer and closer--"

"And nothing happened." Michael finished, sighing and running a hand through his curly hair.

"Well, we just aren't right for each other... like that. I like girls, you like guys, it's just as simple as that. So now we're best friends!" She grinned at him and moved into the kitchen. He had already deflated like a puffed-up cat that returns to its normal size again.

"Yeah. It still doesn't solve the problem of me not having a fucking soulmate, though. It happens all the time, people spend their whole lives looking and never find them." His mouth turned down one of its corners into a dissatisfied frown.

"But you have to look directly into their eyes, so maybe that's why. Walking on a street, you don't look into every passersby's eyes."

"No one does, Linds." He replied realistically.

"More people should. I never would have met Barb if I hadn't locked eyes with her in Canada." She tells him optimistically.

"What if my soulmate's in Canada, too? Or like the fucking Bahamas?"

"I wouldn't mind going with you to the Bahamas- okay, okay." She held up hands defensively at his glare. "Have you seen the statistics? Most people find their soulmates around where they live. Some bullshit fate-thing or like a 'magnetic attraction', but like with love and shit." She shrugged and extracted a gallon tub of ice cream from the freezer and two spoons from a drawer.

"That could be it." Michael sighed again, popping open the lid and digging into the chocolate fudge ice cream with his spoon. "I don't know, man, but it keeps me up at night..."

"I imagine it would. It kept me up, too." Lindsay replied knowingly, also dipping her spoon into the tub.

"Do you wanna go somewhere tomorrow? See if we can't find my true love?" Michael asked sarcastically, but he meant it. It was high fucking time already.

"Sure." Lindsay shrugged. "Maybe he'll be as gorgeous as my Barbara." She gazed out the window dreamily like she was in a cheesy romance film.

"Earth to Lindsay." Michael snapped his fingers in front of her to take her out of her trance. "If you want to, you can crash here but I'm assuming you'll want to go stay with Barb." Michael told her. Barb was great, but he was pretty sad that his best friend wasn't going to be with him all the time anymore.

"I think I could crash here tonight. She's super understanding and besides, I have the rest of my life to spend with her." Lindsay smiled sweetly.

Michael gave her a look like, 'Here with me? When you have her at home??' and she just giggled, giving him a pat on the shoulder. "It's okay, really. We can get up bright and early. Maybe he's an early bird." She shrugged.

He grumbled. "A husband who's an early bird. Fucking great."

"We'll have the best chance if we hit all of the hotspots of town. But you know, Michael, if you don't find him by the end of the day but you do find someone nice, you should at least just date him for a little while. You never know, maybe you'll warm up to him and that will be that."

Michael grumbled again. "Fine. If you want that." He rolled his eyes and she stuck out her tongue.

"Don't worry. I wouldn't have you do anything that I think wouldn't turn out the best for you."

"I know. Let's go to bed, asshole. We're getting up 'bright and early!' tomorrow." He narrowed his eyes at her playfully, but he smiled, watching her step outside to call Barbara. The prospect of a possible future ahead of him was nothing but enticing.

 

\---

 

"B, I don't wanna go out tonight! I want to shoot more with the Phantom!" Gavin whined, giving Dan the best puppy dog eyes he could.

"Gav, we're going out tonight. We need some ladies (or guys) so we can see the actual beauty of what we're filming, remember? And, y'know, having a soulmate would be top, too." He reasoned.

"But--"

"And bevs, don't forget them. You can't find a soulmate without bevs."

"Okay, okay, Dan. We'll go. You're paying, though."

"No, no, B, your drinks, your bill."

Gavin sighed. "Fine, you smeggin' prick."

"Good. Let's go at four. Gives us plenty of time to look around before we start bevvin' up."

 

\---

 

"Lindsay, this is a waste of fucking time." Michael groaned, looking fruitlessly at every face on the street. "It's almost six o'clock, and there hasn't been a _single_ guy I've liked yet."

"Then let's go into that bar. It's our favorite, remember?"

"Fine." He grumbled, stalking with her into the crowded bar.

"Two beers, please." Lindsay told the rushed bartender, who served them quickly. Michael started to object, but Lindsay hushed him. "You can't be shitfaced for this."

Michael shrugged and took his beer to an empty corner booth, Lindsay following cheerily.

"What about him?" Lindsay said, sliding into the left side of the booth and pointing excitedly at a guy sitting at the bar.

Michael's quick eyes found the wedding ring on his left hand. "Married."

"Aw." Lindsay said dejectedly.

Michael spotted a guy in a booth four down from theirs. "He's kind of- what the fuck?" His eyes grew wide and he started laughing as the man also turned towards him. It was none other than Geoff, who was sitting with Jack, and across from them, Griffon and Caiti.

Geoff waved him over cheerily but Michael shook his head, his smile only growing bigger as the other three shouted greetings over at them as well. He merely pointed at Lindsay, who was waving back happily. Geoff nodded, understanding they were having a little alone time and averted the others' attention by sparking a new conversation.

"But B--" The faint chime of the doorbell rang as a couple of odd English accents floated in, alerting Michael's attention to the door.

"Piss off, B. Buy your own drink."

The voices caused Michael to wrinkle his nose. He never could understand what those British pricks were saying. His eyes traveled to the two entering the door, though, just out of curiosity.

One was tall and muscular, dark-haired, and looked like he could beat anyone he wanted to up (although he still managed to seem slightly timid compared to the other). The other made Michael's breath catch, which he covered with a hasty gulp of his beer. Lindsay noticed his reaction immediately, since her head had also lifted at the sound of foreign accents.

"Ohh, he's cute, Michael." She cooed, looking at the taller one.

"Yeah, but his friend-" Michael started, but he coughed on his previous hearty swig of beer. "Is- nice." He said, eyes watering. The other was also tall, but not nearly as muscled. He was very lean and tan with (he had no other way to describe it) swoopy hair. What really caught his attention was his absolutely care-free and cheery attitude. It pissed him off but allured him at the same time.

"Damn, they both are." She giggled at his good fortune. "Why don't you go say hi?"

"What, am I in third grade?" Michael snapped, shrugging off her hand from his arm.

The two Brits ordered a beer each and sat down at the bar to lounge there casually. Michael turned his gaze down and felt his cheeks heat up as the second man looked his way. He noticed Michael's reaction and nudged his companion quizzically.

 

\---

 

"He's cute, innit he, B?" Gav muttered to Dan.

"Yeah, he's okay." Dan shrugged. He studied Gavin's face as he watched the curly-haired and freckled man from across the room. "Go talk to him, Gav." He pushed him off his stool a little bit, but Gavin being Gavin, he almost fell over, uttering a high-pitched squeal that was fortunately not loud enough to rouse the attention of the _whole_ bar; but most especially the man slouched in the back clutching his beer tightly. The girl sitting next to him (the two seemed to not be together) giggled and said something, but the man only murmured something back and grinned slightly.

Gavin, always being one to brush off his mistakes, just laughed with Dan.

"Nah. I mean, I'd know if he's the one, right?" Gavin asked, leaning casually against the counter behind him.

"I mean, have you looked in his eyes yet?" Gav stared at the man bemusedly. He seemed to be avoiding eye contact altogether. Maybe he wasn't interested. Or maybe he just wanted someone to talk with him, his outgoing side said.

He gave the situation one last think over and chugged his beer, which only made him gag. After a hearty pat on the back by Dan, his watery eyes found the corner booth and he walked determinedly towards it... for a few seconds. He faltered when he realized he didn't have the slightest clue of what to say. But, he could feel Dan's eyes on the back of his head, and if he didn't keep going there was no one else to walk towards.

The girl's smile was warm and inviting, though. Maybe too inviting. Was she gloating? But there wasn't any time left to ponder that. Gavin had to decide how to approach this situation.

"Er.. Hello." Gavin feigned a casual air by putting his hands in his pockets and grinning crookedly at the two.

"Hey!" The girl chirped.

"I'm Gavin." He introduced himself with a smile, as his parents had taught him. It always made the best impression.

"I'm Lindsay." She smiled brightly, her hair glinting in the light. "Oh, that's Geoff! I'll be right back!" She excused herself to a booth a few down from theirs to leave them alone, as Gavin assumed.

"Can I sit?" Gavin asked politely and gestured to the booth across from the man.

"Yeah, sure." He answered.

"You are?" Gavin asked him his name, giving him a bit of a quizzical look at his resentment to look at him.

"I'm Michael." The man looked at him and smiled an adorable dimpled smile. A lock of his shiny brunet hair fell onto his forehead, which he promptly brushed back.

Wait... Brown? He could see brown? Gavin's eyes grew as large as saucers as he looked around the room with a frenzied fervor at the greens, blues, and purples.

"Gavin?" Michael's supple voice asked him, which snapped Gavin back to reality. His eyes... They were still grey. Gavin scrambled for a response, slapping on a fake smile.

"Sorry. Got a little distracted there." He laughed nervously, staring at his hands, which were the color of rich caramel. He almost wanted to cry, but Gavin Free never cried. He'd just need to try harder than he'd thought with Michael. He was his soulmate, for god's sake.

 

\---

 

Michael didn't see color when he looked at Gavin. That's what he was afraid of. He didn't want the conformation that this was another man who wasn't his soulmate. Although, he did see a sudden spark of light in Gavin's eyes when he'd looked at him a couple seconds ago. But Gavin couldn't be _his_ soulmate, since he wasn't Michael's, right? Lindsay did tell him to shop around, though, so he decided to give him one chance. And maybe more.

"So, what do you like to do, Michael?" Gavin asked, his finger making a small pattern on the smooth wood texture of the table.

"Michael." He corrected him.

"Michael." Gavin repeated.

"You don't say it right. Mi _chael_." He smiled, enjoying toying with the Brit's accent.

"Michael." Gavin put a little more emphasis in the "Mi" but he was obviously not trying very hard to stop saying it like 'Micool'.

Michael rolled his eyes. "Okay, dumbass."

Gavin laughed squeakily. He definitely wasn't bothered by much.

"So, what do you like to do for fun, Michael?"

Michael usually lied about this kind of thing because other people typically didn't want to hear that a full-grown man enjoyed video games more than anything in the world. But Gavin seemed like someone he could be completely honest to.

"Well, I like playing video games." He confessed. He was delighted to see Gavin's eyes light up like a kid on Christmas.

"Oh, Michael! I love video games! Do you like Halo and GTA? Dan's not very good, so maybe the two of us could play it together? Well, I mean, only if you want to." Gavin stopped himself sheepishly, realizing it might sound a bit weird to invite someone to hang out after just meeting for the first time.

"At least take me on a date first." Michael joked. Gavin just laughed, giving Michael butterflies.

"So, have you played The Last of Us multiplayer yet? It's absolutely top." Gavin said, steering away from the subject to get to know his potential partner more.

"Hell yes. I've been playing the fucking shit out of it." Michael leaned in, his eyes sparking with excitement.

They continued on this for a while, along with new games, childhood games, and shit they did for fun. Gavin liked filming in slow motion, and Michael liked voice acting. Both of them enjoyed being in front of the camera, another thing they had in common. Their conversation slowed after that, and when they reached the point of exchanging numbers, Gavin noticed Dan was gone.

"Oh, bugger me. He was flirting with some cross-eyed chick a few minutes ago. Can I call you if I can't find him?" Gavin asked guiltily.

"What, you can't drive?" Michael laughed. A fucking full-grown man who couldn't drive, Jesus Christ.

"Nah. Never wanted to." He brushed it off, standing up and stretching.

"I'll just stay with you until you find him. I live a few blocks away, so I didn't take my car." Michael shrugged, standing up too. He didn't see Lindsay, so he assumed she had gone home to Barbara, as she knew Michael was otherwise occupied. He opened his phone and noticed a short text from her confirming what he'd guessed. Geoff and company had also already left. He must have talked to Gavin way fucking longer than he thought.

Michael followed Gavin out into the street, leaning against the brick exterior of the bar as Gavin first called Dan, and when it went to voicemail, weaved in and out of the bars along on the street.

"He's probably gone home with that bird." Gavin sighed, half-angry, half-exhausted as he trudged over to Michael. Michael just gave him a look accompanied with a small grin that implied he was crazy.

"What?" Gavin asked confusedly.

"Your fucking British slang. It's ridiculous." Michael straightened up and shook his head, smiling.

"No it's not!" Gavin spluttered.

Michael just laughed. "Yeah, it is." Before Gavin could retort, Michael cut in. "Now, do you want to crash at my place or should I drive you home?"

"Dan's probably at home." Gavin shuddered, and Michael understood what he meant by that.

"Okay. You can crash on my couch. It's not very comfortable, though."

Gavin beamed. "It's okay. I can handle it." And, with a skip in his step, he walked alongside Michael down the bleak sidewalk to his apartment.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry this took so long :( It stumped me pretty hard. This is the final chapter, though, since I cannot keep up long stories no matter how hard I try. Enjoy!~

"My humble abode." Michael stood before his apartment building, gesturing grandly at the bland peeling paint of the outside.

"It's lovely, Michael." Gavin cooed.

"Sure. If you think boring apartment buildings are lovely." He said, walking towards the stairwell. "It's on the second floor, unfortunately." They stomped up the stairs- well, Michael stomped. Gavin more of hopped up the steep stairwell. Michael rolled his eyes at him as they reached the top.

"It's the one on the right." He motioned, pulling out a ring of keys and sticking one in the lock, twisting the handle, and stuffing the ring back in his pocket again. He tugged on the handle and swung the door open dramatically.

"And here it is--! Ray?" There was a thin Puerto Rican man (although not so Puerto Rican looking) sitting on Michael's couch, playing Call of Duty on intently on an Xbox.

"X-Ray!" Gavin exclaimed, also looking at the man.

"Hey Michael, hey Gav." Ray said, not looking away from the TV screen.

"What the fuck are you doing here? And how do you two know each other?" Michael asked, thoroughly confused.

"You never took back your spare key. Tina kicked me out of my own apartment because I 'need to get out more'. And I might have fucking done something if she went with me." He scoffed. "She's one to talk anyway."

"And how do you know _him_?" Michael's voice cracked pathetically on 'him'.

"Gav and I met through Halo. We got into a lot games together, so one time we messaged back and forth for a while when we realized we both live in Austin. So we met up and played games together and shit. And oh yeah, I'm X-Ray and he's Vav." He said all of this without looking away from his game for a single second.

"X-Ray and Vav?" Michael asked bemusedly.

"Yeah, it's a dumb thing we came up with. We're superheroes, and even have our own costumes."

"Costumes?"

"Yeah, our friend Anna Hullum made them especially for us." He smiled reminiscently at the memory.

"Do you wanna see them?" Gavin asked him, already pulling up a picture on his phone.

"Sure," Michael took the phone to see a photo of Ray and Gav in costume, Ray in a green and black spandex outfit and Gavin in a red and blue one.

"Oh, those are nice- oh.." Michael's face became uncharacteristically red as he glanced further down and noticed their nether regions, which were incredibly pronounced. He quickly handed back the phone, not minding Gavin's package but not wanting Ray's delivered to the wrong eyes.

"So, how do you and Ray know each other?" Gavin asked Michael, stashing his phone in his back pocket and leaning on a chair, almost knocking it over.

"We've been friends for a long time." Michael replied after a quiet snigger. "We were coworkers at a shitty job once. We didn't work there for very long since we fucking sucked at it. Literally the only good thing about that job was being able to hang with him." Michael explained. Gavin made a noise of acknowledgement.

"Well, this is wonderful, Michael!" Gavin said enthusiastically. "Now we can all play games together!"

"What, like Frosty the Snowman?" Ray mumbled quietly, but Michael heard anyway and cast him a dark look.

"Ray, are you crashing here?" He asked. Ray shrugged.

"Tina is expecting me to stay out all night and like, fucking make friends or some shit tonight." He laughed humorlessly. "So yeah. I'm taking the couch."

Gavin gave Michael a desperate look. "Where am I gonna sleep, then?" He got a look of deep horror on his face, thinking that Michael would kick him out.

"Well, ah... I only have one bedroom and one couch." He scratched his head uncomfortably. Ray cocked an eyebrow, giving the TV a slowly growing sly grin.

Gavin gave him an unimpressed grimace at his lack of accommodations.

"Hey, I don't want to sleep on the couch if you two are gonna be banging in there." Ray said, causing Gavin to redden and Michael to growl "Shut up."

"I can, uh, sleep on the floor if that makes you more comfortable." Gavin suggested, not wanting to press too hard into their relationship.

"No, you take the bed. You're the guest." Michael gave a sharp look to Ray as he snorted quietly.

"Oh, sod off. I'm not making you sleep on your own floor." Gavin said stubbornly.

"I'm not giving up the couch." Ray said, doing a small fist pump as the end round screen came up and he had the most kills.

Michael sighed heavily at the two idiots he had for friends.

"Well, it's not late enough yet to consider sleeping, so let's just play fuckin' games and get drunk." He told the two, walking to his fridge and pulling out a couple beers and a water.

Michael threw Ray his water and motioned for him and Gavin to come sit in the three chairs he usually had set up for Ray, himself, and Geoff.

"How about we play GTA?" Gavin suggested, taking a swig of his beer and plopping down ungracefully.

"Sure," Ray agreed, shrugging. It wasn't his favorite game ever, but it had a fun fucking multiplayer.

"Alright," Michael stood up and shuffled through the games in a stack on the desk beside his Xbox, pulling out three copies GTA V and shoving them in each console.

He moved to plop down in his rolling chair, but Gavin cheekily pulled it out of the way. Michael had better reflexes, though, and he gave Gavin's arm an annoyed whack, eliciting an annoyingly bird-like squawk from him. He swiped the chair back, leaving Gavin to grumble and rub his upper arm.

Michael settled comfortably in his stolen-back chair and prepared for a long night of getting to know Gavin.

 

\---

 

A sharp squeal rocketed through Michael's apartment, causing Michael to give Gavin's arm a quick smack.

"Shuttap! There are other people in this apartment building, dumbass." Michael scolded. "Do you want someone to call the cops?" He snapped, casually gunning down the mugger that Ray had previously set on him.

"Why'd you blow me up with fireworks, you sausage?" Gavin laughed, respawning and running into a street to find a car. "Oop!" He made a surprised Gavin noise as a car quickly mowed him over, taking over half of his health. He got back up and punched a large black truck, trying unsuccessfully to pull the driver out. The AI honked, and a redneck with a shotgun hopped out of it.

"C'mere, you prick-- ahg!" The man emptied a shell into him, and Gavin's character collapsed pitifully after only one shot.

"Smeggin'... Ugh." Gavin sighed, respawning again and going after a parked car. He clambered into it until a mugger pulled him out, shot him, and drove away with the SUV.

"Gavin, what happened?" Ray asked innocently, holding back his laughter at Gavin's inability to splutter real words in his frustration.

"Oh my god, Gavin, you suck!" Michael laughed, watching as his own mugger killed Gavin again on his way to a large dark gray sedan.

Ray's character shimmied up a ladder to the top of a building where he watched Gavin respawn on the street a few hundred feet away from him. He pulled out his sniper rifle with a quiet snigger and loaded its bullets.

Gavin's pissy mumbles were interrupted by more painfully loud screeches: there were bullets being shot at him so they'd whiz past his head and scare the shit out of him. He zigzagged, almost running into the bullets himself just by doing so.

"Uhp!" His shout as Ray put him out of his misery echoed around the apartment like the ringing end of the last bullet shot from Ray's gun. Ray just shook his head with a smile and stashed away his sniper to take out a rocket launcher.

"EAT SHIT, BITCH!" Michael's triumphant voice yelled as he collided forcefully with Ray and knocked him off of the building, Michael's parachute folded gracefully around him as he smacked straight into the side of a tall building. Ray's character landed with a crunch, leaving a small splatter of blood on the sidewalk.

"Did you just spend all that time getting a cargo bob so you could jump out and hit me?" Ray asked, watching the abandoned airship crash with a fiery explosion to his right as his character lurched up.

"It was time well spent." Michael shrugged, laughing again. "I just can't believe I actually hit you."

"Me either." Ray snickered.

Michael respawned, running down a road to hijack a car, just to be harshly barreled over by a huge semi. Gavin and Ray laughed loudly as Michael shouted at his monitor.

"What the fuck? Really??" His voice peaked, going up at least two octaves.

"You mong! You stepped right in front of me!" Gavin giggled, his laugh squeaking to a high pitch.

Michael huffed, maybe more dramatically than if he was sober. Ray just rolled his eyes, maneuvering down the street to wait for his slow ass mechanic. He watched on his screen as Michael's character popped into existence behind an unknowing Gavin, who was out on his feet after being pulled from the semi's cabin by yet another mugger. Michael quickly whipped out a pistol, which he aimed at Gavin's back.

"Ow! What's hitting me?" Gavin asked, watching his green bar dip into the red. "Michael!" He squealed again.

"You're dead, bitch!" Michael cackled, watching Gavin's dead body crumple into the street. The death message informed him that MLPMichael had eviscerated GavinoFree.

"You're a dead bitch!" He repeated, laughing with Gavin at their stupidity.

Ray's quiet chuckles were interrupted by a large yawn, which, of course, also caused Gavin to yawn. Ray glanced at his phone briefly, and it told him that it was far later than he thought it was.

"Guys, it's two-thirty in the morning." He yawned again tiredly. He'd gotten up earlier than usual for work that morning, but he'd had vigorous training in staying up late playing video games, so he was able to stay up late as hell.

"Holy shi-i-i-t," Michael yawned widely too. "I'm tired as fuck." He said, going to the pause menu. "You wanna stop, lads?" He asked the other two.

"Yeah." Ray said, exiting out of the game. He stretched, his joints popping pleasantly.

"Let's stop!" Gavin agreed, blowing himself up one last time for good measure before closing out of the game.

"Ray, you need anything?" Michael asked him.

"Nah, I've got everything I need." He shrugged, flopping onto the couch and pulling his spare blanket out from the ottoman beside the coffee table. "Oh, but I need a--" A quilted pillow smacked him hard in the face. "Thanks." He grumbled.

"Gav, you need anything? Like something to sleep in?" Michael asked, groaning as he got up from his seat to stretch luxuriously.

"Nah. I don't sleep in anything." One of Michael's eyebrows went up questioningly, and he backpedalled a little.

"I mean, I do sleep in something, I sleep in my underwear." The reaction Ray had was even worse: a sly smirk and raised eyebrows.

"...I guess I could use sweatpants or something." He sighed.

"Okay. C'mon, then." Michael said, beckoning for Gavin to follow him to his room. "Night, Ray!" He called back.

There was a small, sarcastic, "Goodnight, dear," and an even smaller, "I'm gonna need some fucking earplugs." from the couch.

Michael led Gavin to a plain door at the end of the hallway."It's not very big, honestly." He opened it up, and, as he said, it wasn't very big at all. It was sparsely decorated, although it had a few small posters on the wall of various games and movies. His bed had plain black bed sheets and quite a few random trinkets were scattered across his dresser and nightstand, including a small Banjo from the game Banjo Kazooie, some plushies of video game characters, and pictures of his friends.

Gavin walked over to his dresser, where there were Minecraft blocks in precarious stacks. He picked up some diamond ore and TNT block.

"Wow, these are top. These are made really well." He remarked, rolling them over in his palm. "Hmm. This is a nice dynamite." He commented, closely observing the TNT block.

"A nice dynamite?" Michael asked, chuckling. He picked up a square creeper necklace and diamond charm that he also had sitting on his dresser, a gift from Lindsay he'd received a few years previous.

"Oh! Now _these_ are like 'nice dynamite'." He said, grabbing the creeper necklace away from him.

Michael laughed. "What?"

"What do you say when you find diamond?" Gavin asked him.

"Well, usually something like, 'fuck yeah'."

"Or, 'nice!', right?"

"...Sure." He agreed, grinning at Gavin's enthusiasm.

"And creepers explode, like dynamite!" Gavin told him, holding up the creeper charm.

"Huh." Michael hummed, taking the diamond necklace.

"So you're the nice and I'm the dynamite?" Gavin asked, clasping the chain around his neck and looking at the green creeper head hanging off of it in Michael's small vanity mirror.

"Sure, Gav. Team Nice Dynamite." He chuckled, also pulling the diamond pendant around his neck.

Instead of going to bed like big boys, they pooled the previously mentioned Minecraft blocks on the floor at the end of Michael's bed and played with them like little children.

Five minutes later, Gavin pointed to his precariously stacked cubes of four gold blocks and an obsidian on top. "I proclaim this the Tower of Pimps."

"Nice, boi. It would look better if the obsidian was on the bottom, though." Michael said, nodding towards it as he constructed his own roofless house out of wood planks while repeatedly steadying a tree in front.

"Ah, good idea, Michael!" He praised. He fixed his tower by knocking it over unceremoniously into Michael's newly built house.

"What the fuck?! Gavin, you fucking ass!" Michael screeched, watching his hard work tumble sadly across the carpet. He tackled Gavin playfully to sit heavily on his legs and punch him (not too hard, though) in the arm a few times.

"You fuckin' bitch!" He yelled, a joking smile on his face. "You idiot!" Michael slowly rolled off of him and laid on his back on the floor, giggling in a manner usually not acquainted with 26 year olds. Gavin sat up, also dissolving into childish giggles, his smile wide and infectious.

"Pleb." Gavin murmured, slapping Michael on the arm.

"Yeah, I'm the pleb." Michael chuckled.

"Your house was in the way." Gavin scoffed.

"Asshole." Michael shot back affectionately, pushing him over casually. Gavin tipped sideways to flop on his back again contentedly.

They stayed like this for a while, Gavin and Michael lying side by side, staring at the plain ceiling together in a comfortable silence.

"Hey, Michael?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you ever wonder... Nah, never mind." He brushed it off, blowing out a noncommittal breath of air.

"Tell me."

"No, it's dumb." Gavin chuckled.

"Everything you say is dumb." Michael countered, and Gavin gave an agreeing noise.

"What if.. your legs didn't know they were legs?" He asked seriously, his face contemplative.

Michael gave a tiny snort, but he looked over at Gavin and his unsmiling face was simply staring at the ceiling, deep in thought.

"Are you... Are you serious?" Michael asked, a small smile creeping on his face.

"Yeah," He hummed. "Do you think you could break your lungs if you only breathe in?" He asked philosophically.

"No, I don't think so." Michael answered, suppressing a laugh that bubbled to his lips.

"How does a dog know when to stop growing?" Gavin said, a furrow between his brow.

"Is this what goes through your head all day?"

"What happens when astronauts think that they're upside down?"

"I... What?"

"Can you ever be too fast for your legs? Do animals know what animal they are? Has a person ever been born without a body?" He turned on his side to look at Michael, propping himself up with his elbow.

"You fucking sound like you're Google." Michael replied, a chuckle rising to his lips. He also leaned on his elbow, quirking an eyebrow at him.

"People have actually told me that my questions sound like Google." Gavin boasted proudly.

"Yeah, they definitely could be." Michael laughed.

"We made a game of it once, one I played with my friend Burnie and Barbara and sometimes Gus." He explained. Michael hmmed at him, urging him to continue.

"Burnie would give me the start of a question and I would give him a question that came from my brain. It's all in the brain, y'know."

"Yeah, m-hm."

"And then they'd try to guess the difference between my question and the Google suggested questions that other idiot people guessed."

"That sounds fun as fuck."

"Maybe you should come over sometime when Burns and Barb and I are having a game night."

"Maybe I will." Michael murmured, watching Gavin as he shifted back into his previous position of lazily watching the ceiling. He gazed at Gavin as the man became enveloped in his own thoughts again.

He really didn't want to admit it, especially because Gavin wasn't his soulmate, but he liked him. Not like that middle school crush where you "fall in love" with someone and "go out" with them for a few days before breaking up, or in high school where you fuck a few times and get over it. No, definitely not like that at all. This was the kind of love that you unwillingly trip into, made so much more intense by the way you get to know each other before the love even comes around.

"Hey, Gav?"

"Yeah?"

"What, uh, what are we?" Michael asked, fully expecting him to tell him he was dumb, and they were just friends.

"What do you want us to be?" Gavin questioned, turning his head towards him to give him his full attention. He gave him an inviting smile, which Michael returned automatically.

"I'm not gonna lie, I like you, Gav." He confessed, his grin unfaltering.

"Aw, Michael. I like you, too." He chuckled quietly.

"When I saw you at the bar... I was pretty fuckin' nervous that you were going to be just someone I saw and immediately lost again. I'm glad you took the chance and talked to me. I'm a wuss when it comes to that bullshit." Michael said softly.

"I'm glad I talked to you." Gavin cautiously took his hand, lacing their fingers together. He laid his head down next to Michael's. He could inhale Michael's musky scent from this position, which he did. The smell made his head absolutely whirl from pleasure.

"Gavin, I've gotta confess something." Michael said guiltily.

"Hm?" Gavin purred, sounding incredibly content, his eyes closed and head nestled by Michael's shoulder.

"I'm actually nervous about how we're like, not soulmates or whatever." He burned a hole in the ceiling to avoid looking in Gavin's eyes.

"I am, too." Gavin didn't look at Michael either, but for another reason.

"My parents weren't soulmates. They rushed into it and they just said 'fuck it', and didn't bother to find their real soulmate after that." Michael sighed.

"It's been known to happen, two people who aren't fall in love and like, fate or some crap changes." Gavin reasoned.

"My mom and dad never told me anything about how it happens. I'm _still_ in the dark about all this shit." Michael said grumpily. Gavin hmmed an apologetic noise, remembering how fascinating his parents' stories were.

"I'm just," Michael sighs. "I'm tired of how fucking bland the world is. I want vibrancy and color in it, and someone to share it with."

Gavin smiled kindly. "Me, too." He shifted his gaze away to the walls, which were a gorgeous light baby blue, a color that Michael might never see. Gavin's not the kind of guy to just give up on someone, though, and he had already vowed to keep trying.

"Michael, can I try something?" Gavin asked.

"Um, sure." Michael agreed, a little wary.

Gavin sat up and leaned into Michael, placing his free hand on his freckled jawbone gently. He dipped his head in and kissed Michael sweetly, letting him feel comfortable with the contact and move into it on his own terms. Gavin pulled away after a tantalizingly short amount of time and Michael kept his eyes closed to savor the moment, a smile gracing his lips.

He opened his eyes, ready to say something to the extent of, "What took you so fucking long?" but stopped when he saw Gavin's brilliant green eyes staring back at him expectantly.

He opened his mouth wordlessly, gaping uncomprehendingly. The flame igniting in his chest told him he really hadn't imagined Gavin's twinkling eyes and wasn't ever truly out of the running when it came to love. It was like he'd been intoxicated with a straight up shot of pure Gavin, and it slowed his world to a halt as he tried not to drown in a sea of passion.  


Without a second thought or care in the world, eagerly pulled Gavin's face down for another long, deep kiss.

 

\---

 

Gavin knew as soon as those gorgeous, chocolate brown eyes opened that he was gone, and his world was about Michael and only Michael until they were dead and rotting in their graves, and maybe even after that. It sounded cliche, it sounded cheesy and dumb, but that was just how it was supposed to be, Michael and Gavin for as long as the sun burned in the sky and the stars shone in the endless galaxy.  


After they broke apart, he let Michael hop up and prance excitedly about the room for a few minutes, allowing him to drink in the glittering colors. Gavin pulled him back down to earth by wrapping his arms around his waist from behind and pecking small kisses to his neck.

"Gav, why aren't you as excited as I am, you crazy fuck?" Michael asked, gazing at the comparison of their skin tones as he rubbed a thumb over Gavin's supple hand, completely at ease.

"My world lit up when we were in the bar, love." He replied simply.

"Oh yeah, you fucking looked like an excited puppy and I had no clue." Michael chuckled.

"Isn't it just amazing?" Gavin murmured into Michael's ear, observing the colorful trinkets in Michael's room.

"Yeah." They were silent for a few minutes, content to just look around at the room.

"Guess what we can see now?" Michael grinned. Gavin just gave him an encouraging smile.

"Sunsets. Sunrises. The sky when it's cloudless. The sky when there's a storm about to hit. The waves on a beach. Tropical birds and cardinals and blue jays. Spring flowers and summer grass, fall leaves and winter icicles. Trees- pine trees, palm trees, fuck, even oak trees. And the best of all?"

"What?"

"Video games." The grins that surfaced on their faces split their peaceful expressions into ecstatic ones.

"Oh, the HD." Gavin groaned, anticipating it greatly. "Can--" He started, but Michael hushed him with a finger on his lips, replaced quickly with his own.

"We have the rest of our life to fucking play video games." He grinned, running his hands up and down Gavin's sides. "Let's not talk anymore."

"Yeah. Talking is overrated anyway." Gavin muttered slyly, tugging Michael onto the bed and beginning the first night with him for the rest of forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope you liked that. It took much too long. Leave me a comment what you think, and kudos if you liked it. <3 you!

**Author's Note:**

> New chapter coming (relatively soon). Not sure if this will be 2 chapters or 3, but I already have a part of the next chapter and some idea of what will go down within it. Leave your ideas, feedback, and anything you like/dislike! Thanks for reading!<3


End file.
